Ukraine: The Path to Freedom
The photo exhibition "Ukraine: The Path to Freedom" portrays the struggle against Russian domination through the work of 11 Ukrainian photographers and one filmmaker. A struggle that did not begin only with the Russian invasion in 2022, but in fact has been going on for decades.
The story begins in the 1970s when Ukrainian visual art began to openly express its own language. From the moment the country’s visual language begins to free itself from the imposed yoke of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian photographers make clear how art is at once autonomous and a mirror of the turbulent society in which it is created. Socio-political and artistic life are closely connected in this country. From the Soviet Union and its fall to the Orange Revolution, the Maidan protests, and the current war: the political climate in Ukraine has always been fraught, and this is reflected in the photographers’ work.
Ukrainian photography is still hardly known outside its own country. The exhibition was developed by Noorderlicht and the Stichting Oude Groninger Kerken and was previously shown in the Akerk in Groningen. The exhibition is curated by Kateryna Radchenko, curator of the Ukrainian festival Odessa Photo Days, and Wim Melis, curator at Noorderlicht.